Small miners hoping to take advantage of demand for battery metals are struggling to convert electric vehicle aficionados into investors, compounding the sector’s funding constraints even as analysts predict a long-term shortage of the raw materials used to make EVs.
The predicament has made it harder for already-strapped miners to raise money and could stall construction of new mines in the event the burgeoning EV industry faces a supply crunch for battery-grade lithium, graphite and other minerals.
“You need a mine for almost everything that we touch, and people still don’t get that,” said Eric Desaulniers, CEO of Nouveau Monde Graphite, which is developing a graphite mine in Quebec. “They want the electric car to save the planet but no mining.”